Each year the ASUC holds a regular election to choose its five Executive Officers and twenty Senators. All members of the Association—all undergraduate and graduate students at UC Berkeley—can vote. Regular elections are held the second week following Spring Break in early April. Students vote using the Ranked Choice System which guarantees diverse and proportional elections results. Furthermore, students can vote on referendum propositions. Referendum propositions can be placed on the ballot by the ASUC Senate, Graduate Assembly, or by a petition of the student body. Lastly, special elections can occur to recall officials or in other limited circumstances.
Pursuant to ASUCBL 4106: “Party Names for Identification Purposes Only. Parties may be freely formed by any students. Party names do not imply any affiliation to or endorsement by an person, organization, living group, or academic department unless otherwise noted.”
This website is available year-round as a resources to voters, candidates, parties, and proposition proponents/opponents. Please note that the website is usually updated during the winter break for the following elections cycle. During the voting period, the link to vote will appear on this page.
Campaign revenues and expenditures must be reported by candidates, parties, proponents, and opponents. The deadlines and specific regulations surrounding campaign finance can be found in ASUC BL4204, and below. For the 2021 Election, all reports will be made through CalLink, through the ASUC form “2021 Campaign Finance Report Form.”
For more info, read through this website, check out the comprehensive Elections Bylaws or contact the Elections Council (all available below).
Filing Period
March 1st, 9AM – March 12th, 5PM
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Mandatory Elections Meeting
March 16th
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Campaign Finance Period #1 Deadline
March 18th
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Point of No Return Meeting
March 19th
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Hard Campaigning Week
March 29th – April 7th
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Voting Period
April 5th, 12:01AM – April 7th 11:59PM
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Campaign Finance Period #2 Deadline
April 7th, 11:59PM
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Provisional Ballot Tabulations
April 8th, 5PM
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Tabulations Ceremony
April 9th, 6PM
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Campaign Finance Period #3 Deadline
April 9th, 11:59PM
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Clean-up Weekend
April 10th – April 11th
All reports will be reviewed by the Elections Prosecutor. If you have any further questions, please email the Elections Prosecutor at electionsprosecutor@asuc.
Please note that the Elections Council as a whole does not vote on or discuss whether to charge suspects or not. This is at the discretion of the Elections Prosecutor.
A referendum is a vote of the student body on a specific ballot question. The ballot question itself is called a proposition. Propositions can amend the ASUC governing documents, state an opinion of the student body, approve changes to student-initiated fees, and exercise other powers of the Association. Propositions are voted on during regular elections.
Propositions can be placed on the ballot by the ASUC Senate, Graduate Assembly, or by a petition signed by 10% of the student body. To appear in an election, propositions must be placed on the ballot by the end of the filing period. A Proposition Primary Proponent / Opponent Form (described below) must be submitted by the end of the filing period (for legislatively-referred propositions) and before any petition signatures are collected (for voter-initiated propositions). Please read the entirety of ASUC Bylaw Series 4300, linked below, before initiating a proposition.
Student Fee Referenda
Additionally, any propositions relating to student fees must also be approved by the campus Student Fee Referenda Committee (SFRC). Please note that the SFRC has very strict deadlines, and initial contact must be inited with SFRC by October 15 of the preceding year. SFRC will work with student fee referendum proponent through early spring semester to finalize the language of the student fee with the UC Office of the President. SFRC must approve the student fee before it is placed on the ballot. This means that proponents need the final SFRC-approved version of the student fee before the ASUC Senate or Graduate Assembly can pass a resolution placing the proposition on the ballot or before the proponents start collecting signatures to place it on the ballot via petition.
Recall
A recall election is a special type of referendum that can be used to remove any ASUC elected official from office. Recalls can be initiated at any time, by a petition signed by 25% of the number of people who voted in the previous election. Please read the entirety of ASUC Bylaw Series 4300, linked below, before initiating a recall.
Bylaws
To find out more about propositions, how to start a petition to place a question on the ballot, or how to initiate a recall check out ASUC Bylaw Series 4300: Direct Democracy.
Filing Form
Primary Proponents of a voter-initiated (petition) proposition or recall must file a Proposition Primary Proponent / Opponent Form (linked to in the Filing Forms tab) before collecting signatures. Proponents must use the online petition created by the Elections Council; other petition documents cannot be accepted. It can take approximately one to two weeks for the petition to be created by the Elections Council after the form is submitted, so please plan accordingly. The Primary Proponent is required to meet with the Elections Council for a drafting meeting before the petition is created. Additionally, the Primary Proponent must participated in a a public hearing held by the ASUC Senate on the proposition before the end of the filing period (the Senate does not vote to approve the petition or not, but any member of the Senate or student body can question the primary proponent at the hearing).
Primary Proponents of a legislatively-referred proposition must file a Proposition Primary Proponent / Opponent Form (linked to in the Filing Forms tab) after the Senate or Graduate Assembly votes to place the proposition on the ballot, but before the end of the filing period.
Click here to read the elections rules contained in series 4000 of the ASUC Bylaws. Candidates, parties, and proposition proponents/opponents are responsible for knowing the most up-to-date version of the Elections Bylaws at all times. The Elections Bylaws provide a very comprehensive guide to all policies, rules, procedures, and regulations related to the operation of the ASUC Elections and all involved actors.
Public Documents
Elections Council Public Documents can be found here.
Campaign Finance Worksheets can be found here.
The Audit Report 2018 can be found here.
Tabulator
The code of the Tabulator, which is used to count votes, is open to public access and can be viewed here.
All of Elections Council: elections@asuc.org
Skyler-Myles Clinton Cobb, Elections Council Chair
Ananya Narayanan, Assistant Elections Council Chair
Joshua Kay, Elections Prosecutor
Dylan Zhao, Elections Auditor
Addison Chen, Public Defender
Athalia Djuhana, Chief Legal Officer
David Zhou, Chief Personnel Officer
Lisa Triedel, Graduate Rules Officer
Megan Fox, LEAD Center Designee & Advisor (non-voting member)
SENATE CLASS:
1. Ruchi Shah
2. Chaka Tellem
3. Sarah Bancroft
4. Rebecca Soo
5. Ronit Sholkoff
6. Sheena Dichoso Echano
7. Maddy Chen
8. Julia Castro
9. Ellis Spickermann
10. Michael Savides
11. Aasim Yahya
12. Liam Will
13. Naomi Garcia
14. Rex Zhang
15. Mateo Torrico
16. Samuel Peng
17. Alexis Aguilar
18. Apoorva Prakash
19. Dhruv Krishnaswamy
20. Savannah Rodriguez
Contact the Elections Council by emailing elections@asuc.org.